The Nobel Prize in Physics 2004

 

 

 The Nobel Prize in Physics 2004 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2004 “for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction” jointly to David J. Gross, H. David Politzer and Frank Wilczek

A good start …
Frank Wilczek and David Politzer were barely 20 years old and still PhD students when their discovery of asymptotic freedom was published. These were their very first scientific publications!

 

Prize Winners

David J. Gross
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
University of California, Santa Barbara, USA 		H. David Politzer
California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA 		Frank Wilczek
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA
 

A colourful connection

The scientists awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics have solved a mystery surrounding the strongest of nature’s four fundamental forces. The three quarks within the proton can sometimes appear to be free, although no free quarks have ever been observed. The quarks have a quantum mechanical property called colour and interact with each other through the exchange of gluons – nature’s glue.
proton

 

Contents:
| Introduction – A colourful connection | The Standard Model and the four forces | Inside the proton  | The theory shows its true colours | The strong force | A unified theory for all forces? | Timeline | Further reading | Credits |
  Web Adapted Version of the Nobel Poster from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

To cite this section
MLA style: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2004. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach 2025. Wed. 2 Apr 2025. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2004/9472-the-nobel-prize-in-physics-2004-2004-8/>

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